This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I'm an ex-mayor. Los Angeles is a magnet for people from all over the world. Some of them run for public office. Inevitably some of them stray from the golden rule and rule for those that have the gold. That's when I go to work. My name is Yorty. I'm a dead pol.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Welcoming Walter O'Malley

Stepping back into the way back machine to the year 1961, a picture was taken with three very influential people on the Los Angeles political circuit: Walter O'Malley, then Mayor-Elect Sam Yorty, and Mayor Norris Poulson.

Back on June 14, 1961, O'Malley's and Yorty's paths crossed with the conflict over a new road being constructed from Riverside Dr. through Elysian Park. O'Malley was quoted as saying "Certainly, Mayor-elect [Yorty] should be given a reasonable opportunity to familiarize himself with all phases of the Dodger contract and we will be pleased to cooperate. We are confident he will be the first to encourage the speedy completion of the work so that the Stadium will be ready for the opening of next season."”

10 months later on April 9, 1962 Mayor Yorty attended and hosted opening day ceremonies at the new stadium, and in 1964 even threw out the first pitch.

O'Malley delivered Yorty and the fine city of Los Angeles a World Series Championship in 1965, a feat not sure to be accomplished by the current owners for the current Mayor if this last season was any indication.

On May 28, 1967 O'Malley appeared on the Sam Yorty Show, and the favored was returned with O'Malley hosting Yorty to a game on Sept. 6, 1967.

What does all of this have to do with Mayor Sam's Sister City?

O'Malley has come back to cover the sports scene for a few dead mayors. The newest member of the Sister City comes at a time of sports upheaval in our fine city, with the Clippers actually threatening the Lakers as the dominant home team and O'Malley's beloved Dodgers being over run by another "Los Angeles" baseball organization. Hockey has returned, a football team is being woo'd, and new stadium construction is even being rumored.

What better time to introduce our newest member to cover the bases these dead mayors have been amiss in covering.

21 Comments:

I assume that O'Malley will not be covering "futebol" - the unofficial sport of Los Angeles, and the only one that can get you automatically ejected from its parks and fields by Parks and Recreation staffers.

Those pictured were responsible for dislocating hundreds of residence from their homes in Chavez Revine to make room for the new stadieum to house the Dodgers. Hundreds of minorities and poor were uplefted and forced to relocate. Today, the land in Chavez Revine is worth millions and the Dodger organization still has not done much for the surrounding community. Chinatown, Elisyian Park, Echo Park all suffer from the negative impacts the Dodgers bring each baseball season. Traffic, noice, air pollution and thousands of fans that commute through their neighborhoods causing havoc to their daily lives. What has the Dodger ogranization done besides adopt a grammer school nearby, ok they give pencils away. It was sad them when all those men pictured took away homes from the poor and mostly of color, and today it's still said that the Dodgers do nothing for the surrounding community.

I agree 1:05 PM. I still remember (not because I was alive when they evicted the poor and minority residents of Chavez Ravice I'm in high school) seeing a picture of a woman being dragged from her apartment kicking and screaming in order to make way for that stadium. The residents of Chavez Ravine not only got their property stolen by the city and out of state interests but were also a victim of a campaign of lies. Those residents were promised public housing to replace their homes- instead the city perverted the orginal mandate that allowed them to acquire the property and turned into a stadium. There's is a sad day in the life of Los Angeles and hopefully the heyday of men like Yorty, Paulson, and O'Malley who are willing to use the machinations of city government for a nebulous of city 'greatness' at best and sheer private interests and money-making at the worst. I unfortuanetly don't think we have gotten rid of people like that in our city.

The 80 FAKE NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH ORGANIZATIONS is a critical issue being kept alive here by someone NOT affiliated with the Pacheco, Hahn, or ANY other campaign. It is a PERSONAL campaign to bring to light the wasteful, opportunistic, flippant, spin-happy and immoral use of something critical to CD14, (components of its safety), that SHOULD have been improved by the past CM, but NEVER was addressed. Otherwise, there would be PROOF.

In mentioning it here MANY times over the months since Villaraigosa and his team of paid LIE spinners (including the now-defunct Chief Faker), I have mentioned NUMEROUS real neighborhood watch organizations in the district, in fact practically EVERY ONE of the real ones (AND pointed out that they ALL came in to existence BEFORE our current mayor carpet-bagged into CD14 in order to run for CM of this small an apparently inconsequential political stepping stone some of us call home).

They've been mentioned in open threads, they've been inserted sarcastically, sardonically, and humorously into other threads dealing with the mayor and his NEW fake accomplishments as the presumed mayor of Los Angeles (remains to be seen, since he never did really assume the responsibilities of his LAST job in the city), as a testimony to his lack of character - which affects ALL PAST lies and FUTUE promises -- by I'm being redundant there. To AV, a promise is simply a lie that remains to be revealed.

If you search back through the archives, you'll find NAMES, DATES of meetings, LOCATIONS of watch organizations -- even contact persons in MANY cases.

The ONLY watches that haven't been mentioned by specific name, are, or course, the 80 FAKE ONES, because they, like most of AV's accomplishments at skills necessary to lead the city, are, well. . . as the name implies, FAKE.

Finally PLEASE realize that the opponent of a mayor I have no respect for is not necesarily my ally, OR my employer. If life were that "linear" and straightforward, then Antonio Villaraigosa would still be a labor leader - the last job the held some real affinity for.

P.S. (You realize, of course, YOU raised the issue of the 80 in this non-open thread, FIRST.

I'm sure you'll do well with sports. There's some good competition in the LA blogosphere, notably Phil Wallace at LAist, and, I hope, us. Best wishes to Walt, but I'm still trying to figure out why there were no drinking fountains originally planned for Dodger Stadium.

Mayor Sam, CD14 is the new heart of L.A., were the pots are stirred and deals are being made. Without it, this blog would be nothing but whiney valleyites who can't "get over" losing out on the secession vote (and they say anti-AV people carry a grudge?)

You saw it here first. Mccourt will TRY to raze Dodger Stadium and put up condos. This is all a real estate ploy.

Cant we get rid of these carpetbaggers and get an owner who cares about baseball? While we are at it, lets lose the annoying wife who loves to talk about 'business models' when she talks about her influence on the Dodgers.

Sports fans should become a "free agent" fan. Why should fans freely give over their time and money to organizations that will leave their city once the subsidies dry up or another city gives a better offer?

Sports teams need to EARN their fans. What if the Nuggets were more committed to having you as a fan than the Lakers? What if the Reds fought to have you cheer for them all season long?

C'mon, fans. Wake up!!! Stop following your "home team" like a puppy and make them give a sh*t about YOU for once!